The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks

386 Pages·2014·40.14 MB·English

THE FINE ART
OF MIXING DRINKS
by David A. Embury
THIS is the Escoffier of cocktail books. Not
just a compilation of recipes, nor a slap­
dash collection of smart chatter and bit­
ters—it is delightful, urbane reading for
the expert, and precise, detailed guidance
for the novice who aspires to prepare drinks
which are palatable, not merely potable.
THE FINE ART OF MIXING DRINKS
covers every phase of the subject from the
judging of fine liquor to the selection of
a corkscrew. It analyzes the qualities of
all basic liquors and points up the dif­
ferences between them—between Scotch
and Irish whiskies, white and yellow gin,
Cuban and Jamaican rum, etc.
There is a chapter on glassware, gim­
micks, and gadgets: another on limes.
(Continued on back flap)
THE FINE ART
OF MIXING DRINKS
BY DAVID A. EMBURY
THE FINE ART
OF MIXING DRINKS
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC., GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, 1948
To my daughter and her husband who, with their
tongues in their cheeks, persuaded me that I owed
it to posterity to commit to paper the wisdom and
learning herein contained, this book is affectionately
dedicated.
COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY DAVID A. EMBURY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
FIRST EDITION
PREFACE
In the preface or foreword to a book of this kind it
is customary to explain how the author got that way,
and to elaborate on his many years of experience in
the liquor business, the hotels and restaurants he has
managed, the bars over which he has presided, and
the celebrities he has served and for whom he has
graciously named some of his extra-special drinks.
In order that there may be no misunderstanding,
therefore, I want to make it clear at the outset that
I have never been engaged in any of the manifold
branches of the liquor business. I am not a distiller,
an importer, a bottler, or a merchant of liquors. I
am not even a retired bartender. My practical ex­
perience with liquors has been entirely as a consumer
and as a shaker-upper of drinks for the delectation
of my guests. This book is, therefore, purely and dis­
tinctly a book written by an amateur for amateurs.
On the other hand, I have always possessed an
insatiable curiosity about the whys and wherefores of
many things and particularly of food and drinks. For
years it has been my practice, when served with some
especially delicious dish at a hotel or restaurant, to
worm my way into the confidence of the chef and dis­
cuss with him every minute detail of its preparation.
v
Furthermore, I chance to have a mind that is both
analytical and faintly skeptical. I always want to know
not only the "how" but also the "why."
Because of these personal traits, whenever I have
been served with some drink that was either extra fine
or extra poor, I have always tried to ascertain what
it was that made it good or that made it bad. These
bits of information, gleaned piecemeal over a period
of some forty years, I have collated, classified, and
filed away in mental cabinets for future reference.
And now I have emptied out the contents of these
mental files and have compiled what I regard as the
more important of them for your information and
guidance.
In doing this I have assumed that, like myself, you,
too, would like to know the "why" as well as the
"how"; that you would not particularly care about
a mere conglomeration of recipes, some good, some
indifferent, and some definitely bad; but that you
would like to know what principles to follow and what
pitfalls to avoid in mixing palatable—and not merely
potable—drinks from whatever liquors might chance
to be available for use. If any pastry cook were to
see a cake recipe calling for 2 pounds of butter, I
teaspoon of flour, 5 pounds of sugar, 1 cup of baking
powder, and 2 cups of vanilla, he would know that
either it was written by a lunatic or it was printed by
a drunken typesetter. He would know that the quan­
tity given for every ingredient was completely ridic­
ulous. But that is because he would know the re­
spective functions of the shortening, the sweetening,
the leavening, and the flavoring agents and the ap­
proximate quantities of each, in relation to the quan­
tity of flour, necessary to perform those functions.
Yet many cocktail recipes are just as ridiculous as
my theoretical cake recipe. The relative proportions
of basic liquors, modifying agents, special flavoring
agents, etc., are just as important in the mixing of a
cocktail as are the relative proportions of flour, short­
ening, and other ingredients in the mixing of a cake.
vi
Your chef may use one egg in making one cake and a
dozen eggs in making another, but he knows exactly
the difference in the type and texture of the cake that
will result from this variation. You, too, should know
the difference in the type of drink that will result
from varying proportions of the several classes of
cocktail ingredients. Yet, so far as I have been able
to ascertain, no book has ever heretofore attempted
to teach the art of mixing cocktails in this simple and
logical manner.
The contents of this book are based primarily on
personal experience but also on information gleaned
over many years from the reading of scores of books,
pamphlets, and articles of all kinds having to do with
the production, distribution, and consumption of al­
coholic beverages. That part of the book dealing with
the manufacture of liquors is, in the language of the
the old-time securities prospectus, "not guaranteed,
but has been obtained from sources that are believed
to be reliable." Comments on various medical aspects
of the subject are based on personal discussion with
leading physicians and surgeons and on articles found
in publications of the American Medical Association
and similar authoritative works.
All remarks concerning the superior flavor of one
liquor as against another are, of course, based on
personal preference and taste. The same is true re­
garding brands I have recommended. Those that I
have named are the ones I like. Moreover, drinks
that I have mixed with them have won the enthu­
siastic approval of my friends. I make no pretense,
however, of having tried all brands of all liquors on
the market. It may well be that there are other brands
of one liquor or another that are just as good as any
I have named or even better. Few writers on the
subject of liquors have the temerity to mention brands
at all. But, as already stated, I have written this book
for the benefit of amateurs, some of whom may not
know one brand from another. Of what avail, then,
to be told that good cocktails can be made only with
vii
good liquors unless you also know at least one or
two brands that are good?
In short, then, I have tried to include in this book
at least the substance of everything that I should want
to know if I were starting in, a complete greenhorn,
to learn how to mix and serve in my own home various
drinks, particularly that crowning glory of all mixed
drinks—the American Cocktail.
Is that what you want to know? Then, gentlemen,
"Here's how!"
viii
CONTENTS
PAGE
v PREFACE
1 BASIC PRINCIPLES
3 What, Then, Is a Cocktail?
4 Cocktail Ingredients
5 The Base
6 The Modifying Agent
8 Special Flavoring and Coloring Agents
10 GLASSWARE, GIMMICKS, AND GADGETS
11 Glasses
17 Shakers
19 Miscellaneous Equipment
21 Table of Measurements
23 LIMES, LEMONS, AND LIQUORS
23 Gin
31 Whisky
43 Rum
48 Cognac and Other Grape Brandies
56 Other Fruit Brandies
59 Miscellaneous Spirits
59 Southern Comfort
59 Aquavit
60 Vodka
ix